…relay team already reaping benefits of podium finish
By Jemima Holmes
Guyana’s 4x100m relay team
By Jemima Holmes
AAG President Aubrey Hutson
The proof has been in the proverbial pudding in regard to the development of athletics in Guyana, as Guyana walked away with 5 medals when the South American Senior Championships, staged in Paraguay from May 29-31 this year, were ended.
Guyana’s 12-member contingent secured one silver and 4 bronzes in a major improvement for the Guyanese contingent, as it represents Guyana’s highest medal haul ever at those Games.
During the last edition of this biennial event in Lima, Peru in 2019, Guyana was unable to bag a medal.
In 2017, Guyana won a single medal at those Games.
In 2015, while Guyana did not participate, Guyanese Stephen James had copped a lone medal – bronze in the 400M event in Cartagena, Colombia.
In Asuncion, Paraguay in 2013, Winston George was the lone Guyanese on the podium, copping gold in the Men’s 200m.
Now with 5 medals in the bag, an elated Aubrey Hutson, President of the Athletics Association of Guyana (AAG), shared with this newscast his thoughts on the contingent’s performance.
“I am pretty proud of the team. I mean, the percentage of athletes coming back home with medals is pretty high. I think they really and truly would have represented Guyana in a meaningful way,” Hutson commented.
Jovially recollecting the weekend’s events, Hutson shared that even the regional and world governing bodies were paying close attention to Guyana’s performances.
“From the comments I’m getting from my colleagues in South America, and even the President of the South American Athletics Confederation, he reached out to me personally and said, you know, ‘Thanks for sending such a large team’, and also, every time they won a medal, he would send me a message to say, ‘Oh, one more medal for Guyana’.”
Continuing, Hutson said, “World Athletics also would have sent messages congratulating us on, again, the size of contingent that we would have sent, and also the performances of our athletes.”
On Monday, Andrea Foster crossed the line third in the Women’s 80m event in a time of 2.05.93.
On Saturday last, Emanuel Archibald bagged a silver in the Men’s 100M sprint. He clocked 10.23s behind Brazil’s Felipe Bardi, who placed first with 10.10s.
In the distaff, Jasmine Abrams copped bronze in the 100m in a time 11.50s. Also finishing third was Jenea McCammon, who competed the 100m hurdles in a time of 13.63s.
The Men’s 4x100m team also made the podium, clocking 40.02s for a bronze medal. That team comprised Jeremy Bascom, Akeem Stewart, Emmanuel Archibald and Noelex Holder.
Speaking specifically to the relay team’s achievement, Huston revealed that they have already received an invitation to compete again.
“It was great! It was great! And that 4×1 medal is stacked against Guyana and not stacked against the four athletes. So what those four athletes did is bring the recognition that Guyana has good 100-metre athletes, and also can produce great 4X1 teams. And that was my objective in sending that team over there,” an elated Hutson declared.
Further, the AAG boss disclosed to Guyana Times Sport that there are budding opportunities for the relay team. “So, a matter of fact, we’ve already got an invitation for those four athletes, or for Guyana, to appear in the NACAC Championships in Florida this weekend. So, we’re working on that though, and getting the team…there for them to go into competition again.
“And I think the more that we do this, it can only improve and create more visibility for us, which is good for our programme, because we needed visibility for sponsors to come on board and support us in our programme,” Hutson explained.
On a separate note, the AAG President shared his only disappointment, being the lack of qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics.
“My only little downturn is that we did not have qualifiers for Tokyo coming out of this championship, which will put the burden on the athletes to be in Guyana for the National Senior Championships to really and truly make those standards,” Hutson explained.
Guyanese athletes will now rely on the Senior Athletics Championships here in a last bid for Olympic Qualification.
